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Level 1

13 points

27" led cinema display goes black

My Apple 27" LED Cinema display has begun to go black for no apparent reason. I am running Mac OS X 10.6.8 on a Mac Pro with a6-Core Intel Xeon processor with 8 MB of memory. The system and dispaly are about a year old or less. I have had no problems with this system until today. the display has gone black several times now. I shut off the computer and rebooted and it comes on again and then after a period of time goes black again (whether I am doing something or not on the computer). I have zapped the PRAM and repaired permissions. It does not seem to affect whatever is wrong with the display. Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone have a solution other than sending the display in to Apple for repair? Thanks.

apple 27" led cinema display-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Aug 31, 2012 3:03 PM

Best reply

FWBurr

Level 1

13 points

Posted on Mar 17, 2017 12:32 PM

I have the same issue. In the past, my Cinema display would just go black; if I unplugged the cable and plugged it back in to my MacPro (2013), it would be find. Eventually, that problem self-resolved. More recently, the screen will flash black for a second if I'm changing web pages in Safari, or applications (going from Word to Quicken for Mac, for example). Of course, my AppleCare coverage ran out last month (can you believe it? how do they do that?).

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68 replies

slusch

Level 1

8 points

Dec 16, 2015 7:55 AM in response to count_schemula

hi,

I have a similar problem. I have my MacBook Pro attached to a Thunderbolt display via thunderbolt. I am also charging the MacBook Pro via the thunderbolt display. The MacBook Pro is sometimes charging and sometimes not. I have not been able to figure out why this is.

Since today the Thunderbolt display goes black when I close the connected laptop (which I normally do to use the Thunderbolt display as the only screen). I have a suspicion that this might have to do with the Mac OS X Security update that I did today. The screen works again when I charge the MacBook Pro from the Power adapter and not from the display.

Any clues as to what is going on?

jimmckay

Level 1

4 points

Mar 28, 2016 6:16 PM in response to Gregory247

I was having the same sort of issues and just discovered that if I set the brightness to about 75% via the displays panel and unplug/replug it I don't have trouble anymore. Seems like the backlight is going bad and can't keep the 100% brightness going. Or perhaps a firmware issue.. The firmware updates refuse to run on my MacBook though.

You can check whether it's a backlight issue by shining a bright flashlight (or iPhone) directly into the screen in dim lighting. If you can see pixels, it's the backlight.

Zorro21c

Level 1

18 points

May 24, 2016 9:28 AM in response to TonyAugust

For $300 you can buy a nice glossy PC monitor screen and attach to Mac.

CnSntrk

Level 1

4 points

Jun 18, 2016 5:57 PM in response to Gregory247

i had the same problem with my display for aprox a year. but only with my MacBook Pro 2011. The other laptops are working fine.

* MacBook Pro 2011: problems

* MacBook Air 2016: working great

* MacBook Pro Retina 15 2016: working great.

for the MacBook Pro 2011 i have a simple solution: don't put it to sleep mode!

Whenever i attach the 2011 Laptop to the Monitor, i restart the laptop (no joke! ). Then i changed the "Display sleep"->"Never" in "Preferences > Energy Saver", if the system is on "Power Adapter".

Never had the effect ever since.

scottsmi

Level 1

4 points

Jul 20, 2016 12:37 PM in response to Gregory247

I had the same issue, screen not turning on, even if plugged into different port on surge protector. The magsafe power supply not delivering any power to my laptop. I'd had flickering problems for over a year.

BUT... I didn't need to buy a new power supply. Plugging directly into the wall, bypassing the surge-protector (belkin) made everything work again. I don't even have flickering any more. If you have these problems, try this first!